Epoch Times Commentaries on the Communist Party – Part 6: On How the Chinese Communist Party Destroyed Traditional Culture
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Epoch Times Commentaries on the Communist Party – Part 6
On How the Chinese Communist Party Destroyed Traditional Culture
The Epoch Times
Dec 20, 2004
A poster from the “Criticizing Lin Biao and Confucius” campaign
(AFP/Getty Images)
This is the sixth of Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.
Foreword
Culture is the soul of a nation. This spiritual factor is as important
to mankind as physical factors such as race and land.
Cultural developments define the history of a nation’s civilization.
The complete destruction of a national culture leads to the end of the
nation. Ancient nations who had created glorious civilizations were
considered to have vanished when their cultures disappeared, even
though people of their races may have survived. China is the only
country in the world whose ancient civilization has been passed down
continuously for over 5,000 years. Destruction of its traditional
culture is an unforgivable crime.
The Chinese culture, believed to be passed down by God, started with
such myths as Pangu’s creation of heaven and the earth [1], Nüwa’s
creation of humanity [2], Shennong’s identification of hundreds of
medicinal herbs [3], and Cangjie’s invention of Chinese characters
[4]. “Man follows the earth, the earth follows heaven, heaven follows
the Tao, and the Tao follows what is natural.” [5] The Taoist wisdom
of unity of heaven and humanity has coursed through the veins of
Chinese culture. “Great learning promotes the cultivation of
virtue.”[6] Confucius opened a school to teach students more than
2,000 years ago and imparted to society the Confucian ideals
represented by the five cardinal virtues of benevolence, righteousness,
propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness. In the first century,
Shakyamuni’s Buddhism traveled east to China with its emphasis on
compassion and salvation for all beings. The Chinese culture became
more wide-ranging and profound. Thereafter, Confucianism, Buddhism, and
Taoism became complementary beliefs in Chinese society, bringing the
Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.) to the peak of its glory and prosperity, as
is known to all under heaven.
Although the Chinese nation has experienced invasion and attack many
times in history, the Chinese culture has shown great endurance and
stamina, and its essence has been continuously passed down. The unity
of heaven and humanity represents our ancestors’ cosmology. It is
common sense that kindness will be rewarded and evil will be punished.
It is an elementary virtue not to do to others what one does not want
done to oneself. Loyalty, filial piety, dignity, and justice have set
the social standards, and Confucius’ five cardinal virtues of
benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faithfulness have
laid the foundation for social and personal morality. With these
principles, the Chinese culture embodied honesty, kindness, harmony,
and tolerance. Common Chinese people’s death memorials show reverence
to “heaven, earth, monarch, parents and teacher.” This is a
cultural expression of the deep-rooted Chinese traditions, which
include worship of god (heaven and earth), loyalty to the country
(monarch), values of family (parents), and respect for teachers. The
traditional Chinese culture sought harmony between man and the
universe, and emphasized an individual’s ethics and morality. It was
based on the faiths of the cultivation practices of Confucianism,
Buddhism, and Taoism, and provided the Chinese people with tolerance,
social progress, a safeguard for human morality, and righteous belief.
Unlike law, which prescribes hard rules, culture works as a soft
constraint. The law enforces punishment after a crime has been
committed, while culture, by nurturing morality, prevents crimes from
happening in the first place. A society’s morality is often embodied
in its culture.
In Chinese history, traditional culture reached its peak during the
prosperous Tang Dynasty, coinciding with the height of the Chinese
nation’s power. Science was also advanced and enjoyed a unique
reputation among all nations. Scholars from Europe, the Middle East,
and Japan came to study in Chang’an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty.
Countries bordering China took China as their suzerain state. “Tens
of thousands of countries came to pay tribute to China, even though
they might have to be translated multiple times and clear successive
customs.” [7]
After the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC), China was often occupied by
minority groups. This happened during the Sui (581-618AD), Tang
(618-907AD), Yuan (1271-1361AD) and Qing (1644-1911AD) dynasties and in
some other times when ethnic minorities established their own regimes.
Nevertheless, almost all these ethnic groups were assimilated to the
Chinese ways. This shows the great integrative power of traditional
Chinese culture. As Confucius said, “(Thus) if the people from afar
are not compliant, bring them around by cultivating (our) culture and
virtue.” [8]
Since attaining power in 1949, the CCP has devoted the nation’s
resources to destroying China’s traditional culture. This ill
intention did not come from the CCP’s zeal for industrialization, nor
from simple foolishness in worshipping Western civilization. Rather, it
came from the CCP’s inherent ideological opposition to traditional
Chinese culture. Thus, the CCP’s destruction of Chinese culture has
been planned, well organized, and systematic, supported by the
state’s use of violence. Since its establishment, the CCP has never
stopped “revolutionizing” Chinese culture in the attempt to destroy
its spirit completely.
Even more despicable than the CCP’s destruction of traditional
culture is its intentional misuse and underhanded modification of
traditional culture. The CCP has highlighted the vile parts from
China’s history, things that occurred whenever people diverged from
traditional values, such as internal strife for power within the royal
family, the use of tactics and conspiracy, and the exercise of
dictatorship and despotism. It has used these historical examples to
help create the CCP’s own set of moral standards, ways of thinking,
and system of discourse. In doing so, the CCP has given the false
impression that the “Party culture” is actually a continuation of
traditional Chinese culture. The CCP has even taken advantage of the
aversion some people have for the “Party culture” to incite further
abandonment of the authentic Chinese tradition.
The CCP’s destruction of traditional culture has brought disastrous
consequences to China. Not only have people lost their moral bearings,
they have also been forcibly indoctrinated with the CCP’s evil
theories.
******************
I. Why Did the CCP Want to Sabotage Traditional Culture?
The Long Tradition of Chinese Culture—Based on Faith and Venerating
Virtue
The authentic culture of the Chinese nation started about 5,000 years
ago with the legendary Emperor Huang, who is deemed to be the earliest
ancestor of the Chinese civilization. In fact, Emperor Huang was also
credited with founding Taoism—which was also called the Huang-Lao
(Lao Zi) school of thought. The profound influence of Taoism on
Confucianism can be seen in such Confucian sayings as “Aspire to the
Tao, align with virtue, abide by benevolence, and immerse yourself in
the arts” and “If one hears the Tao in the morning, one can die
without regret in the evening.” [9] The Book of Changes (I Ching) , a
record of heaven and earth, yin and yang, cosmic changes, social rise
and decline, and the laws of human life, was regarded as “Number one
among all Chinese classics” by Confucians. The prophetic power of the
book has far surpassed what modern science can conceive. In addition to
Taoism and Confucianism, Buddhism, especially Zen Buddhism, has had a
subtle yet profound influence on Chinese intellectuals.
Confucianism is the part of the traditional Chinese culture that
focused on “entering the mundane world.” It emphasized family-based
ethics, in which filial piety played an extremely important role,
teaching that “all kindness starts with filial piety.” Confucius
advocated “benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and
faithfulness,” but also said, “Aren’t filial piety and brotherly
love the roots of benevolence?”
Family-based ethics can be naturally extended to guide social morality.
Filial piety can be extended to subordinates’ loyalty to the monarch.
It is said that, “It is seldom that a person with filial piety and
brotherly love will be inclined to offend those above.”[10] Brotherly
love is the relationship among brothers, and can be further extended to
righteousness and justice among friends. Confucians teach that in a
family, a father should be kind, a son filial, an older brother
friendly, and a younger brother respectful. Here, fatherly kindness can
be further extended to benevolence of the monarch toward his
subordinates. As long as the traditions of a family can be maintained,
social morality can naturally be sustained. “Cultivate oneself,
regulate one’s family, rightly govern one’s state and make the
whole kingdom tranquil and happy.” [11]
Buddhism and Taoism are the parts of Chinese culture that focused on
“leaving the mundane world.” The influence of Buddhism and Taoism
can be found to penetrate all aspects of ordinary people’s lives.
Practices that are deeply rooted in Taoism include Chinese medicine,
qigong, geomancy (Feng Shui), and divination. These practices, as well
as the Buddhist conceptions of a heavenly kingdom and hell, the karmic
reward of good and the retribution of evil, have, together with
Confucian ethics, formed the core of traditional Chinese culture.
The beliefs of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism offered the Chinese
people a very stable moral system, unchangeable “so long as heaven
remains.” [12] This ethical system offered the basis for
sustainability, peace, and harmony in society.
Morality belongs to the spiritual realm; thus, it is often conceptual.
Culture expresses such an abstract moral system in language that can be
commonly understood.
Take the “Four Chinese Classics,” the four most renowned novels in
Chinese culture, as examples. The Journey to the West [13] is a
mythical tale. A Dream of Red Mansions [14] starts with a dialog
between a spirited stone and the Deity of Infinite Space and the Tao of
Boundless Time at the Baseless Cliff of the Great Waste Mountain—this
dialog provides clues for the human drama that unfolds in the novel.
Outlaws of the Marsh [15] opens with a tale of how premier Hong, in
charge of military affairs, accidentally set free 108 demons. This
legend explains the origin of the “108 outlaw militants of
prowess.” Three Kingdoms [16] begins with a heavenly warning of a
disaster, and ends with the inescapable conclusion of God’s will:
“The world’s affairs rush on like an endless stream; a heaven-told
fate, infinite in reach, dooms all.” Other well-known stories, such
as The Romance of the Eastern Zhou [17] and The Complete Story of Yue
Fei [18], all begin with similar legends.
These novelists’ use of myths was not a coincidence, but a reflection
of a basic philosophy of Chinese intellectuals toward nature and
humanity. These novels have had a profound influence on the Chinese
mind. When speaking of “righteousness,” people think of Guan Yu
(160-219 AD) of the Three Kingdoms rather than the concept itself—how
his righteousness to his friends transcended the clouds and reached
heaven; how his unmovable loyalty to his superior and sworn-brother Liu
Bei gained him respect even from his enemies; how his bravery in battle
prevailed in the most dire of situations, his final defeat in a battle
near the Town of Mai; and, finally, his conference as a deity with his
son. When speaking of “loyalty,” Chinese people naturally think of
Yue Fei (1103-1141 AD), a Song Dynasty general who served his country
with unreserved integrity and loyalty, and Zhuge Liang (181-234 AD),
prime minister of the Shu State during the Three Kingdoms period, who
“gave his all until his heart stopped beating.”
Traditional Chinese culture’s eulogy of loyalty and righteousness has
been fully elaborated in these authors’ colorful stories. The
abstract moral principles they espouse have been made specific and
embodied in cultural expressions.
Taoism emphasizes truthfulness. Buddhism emphasizes compassion, and
Confucianism values loyalty, tolerance, benevolence and righteousness.
“While their forms differ, their purposes are the same…they all
inspire people to return to kindness.” [19] These are the most
valuable aspects of traditional Chinese culture based upon the beliefs
in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.
Traditional Chinese culture is filled with concepts and principles such
as heaven, the Tao, God, Buddha, fate, predestination, benevolence,
righteousness, propriety, wisdom, faithfulness, honesty, shame,
loyalty, filial piety, dignity, and so on. Many Chinese may be
illiterate, but they are still familiar with traditional plays and
operas. These cultural forms have been important ways for ordinary
people to learn traditional morals. Therefore, the CCP’s destruction
of traditional Chinese culture is a direct attack against Chinese
morality and undermines the basis for peace and harmony in society.
The Evil Communist Theory Opposes Traditional Culture
The “philosophy” of the Communist Party completely contradicts the
authentic traditional Chinese culture. Traditional culture respects the
mandate of heaven, as Confucius once said, “Life and death are
predestined, and wealth and rank are determined by heaven.” [20] Both
Buddhism and Taoism are forms of theism, and believe in the
reincarnation cycle of life and death, and the karmic causality of good
and evil. The Communist Party, on the contrary, not only believes in
atheism, but also runs wild in defying the Tao and assaulting heavenly
principles. Confucianism values family, but the Communist Manifesto
clearly promulgates abolition of the family. Traditional culture
differentiates the Chinese from the foreign, but the Communist
Manifesto advocates the end of nationality. Confucian culture promotes
kindness to others, but the Communist Party encourages class struggle.
Confucians encourage loyalty to the monarch and love for the nation.
The Communist Manifesto promotes the elimination of nations.
To gain and maintain power in China, the Communist Party first had to
plant its immoral thoughts on Chinese soil. Mao Zedong claimed, “If
we want to overthrow an authority, we must first make propaganda, and
do work in the area of ideology.”[21] The CCP realized that the
violent communist theory, which is sustained with arms, is the refuse
of Western thoughts and could not stand up to China’s profound
5,000-year cultural history. “In for a penny, in for a pound.” The
CCP then completely destroyed traditional Chinese culture, so that
Marxism and Leninism could take China’s political stage.
Traditional Culture Is an Obstacle to the CCP’s Dictatorship
Mao Zedong once said, fittingly, that he follows neither the Tao nor
heaven. [22] Traditional Chinese culture undoubtedly served as a huge
obstacle for the CCP’s defying the Tao and contending with heaven.
Loyalty in traditional Chinese culture does not mean blind devotion. In
the eyes of the people, the emperor is a “son of heaven”—with
heaven above him. The emperor cannot be correct at all times. Therefore
there was a need for observers to point out the emperor’s mistakes
all the time. The Chinese chronicle system had historians record all
the words and deeds of the emperor. Scholastic officials could become
teachers for their sage kings, and the behavior of the emperor was
judged by the Confucian classics. If the emperor was
immoral—unenlightened to the Tao, people might rise up to overthrow
him, as was the case when Chengtang attacked Jie, or in King Wu’s
removal of Zhou. [23] These uprisings, judged from traditional culture,
were not considered violations of loyalty or the Tao. Instead, they
were seen as enforcing the Tao on behalf of heaven. When Wen Tianxiang
(1236-1283 AD) [24], a well-known military commander in the Song
Dynasty, was taken prisoner, he refused to surrender to the Mongolian
invaders even when the Emperor tried to persuade him to surrender. This
was because, as a Confucian, he believed that “The people are of
supreme importance; the nation comes next; last comes the ruler.”
[25]
The dictatorial CCP could by no means accept traditional beliefs such
as these. The CCP wanted to canonize its own leaders and promote a cult
of personality, and so would not allow such long-held concepts such as
heaven, Tao, and God to govern from above. The CCP was aware that what
it did was considered the most heinous and enormous crime against
heaven and the Tao if measured by the standards of traditional culture.
They were aware that as long as the traditional culture existed, people
would not praise the CCP as “great, glorious, and correct.”
Scholars would continue the tradition of “risking their lives to
admonish the monarch,” “maintaining justice at the expense of their
lives,” [26] and place the people above the rulers. Thus, the people
would not become CCP puppets, and the CCP could not force conformity on
the thoughts of the masses.
The traditional culture’s respect for heaven, the earth and nature
became an obstacle for the CCP’s “battle with nature” in an
effort to “alter heaven and the earth.” Traditional culture
treasures human life, teaching that “any situation involving human
life has to be treated with the utmost care.” Such a perception was a
hindrance to the CCP’s mass genocide and rule by terror. The
traditional culture’s ultimate moral standard of the “heavenly
Tao” interfered with the CCP’s manipulation of moral principles.
For these reasons, the CCP made traditional culture an enemy in an
effort to bolster its own control.
Traditional Culture Challenges the Legitimacy of the CCP Rule
Traditional Chinese culture believes in God and the heavenly mandate.
Accepting the mandate of heaven means that rulers have to be wise,
follow the Tao and be attuned to destiny. Accepting belief in God means
accepting that authority over humanity rests in heaven.
The CCP ruling principle is summarized as, “Never more tradition's
chains shall bind us, arise ye toilers no more in thrall. The earth
shall rise on new foundations; we are but naught; we shall be all.”
[27]
The CCP promotes historical materialism, claiming that Communism is an
earthly paradise, the path to which is led by the pioneer proletarians,
or the Communist Party. The belief in God thus directly challenged the
legitimacy of the CCP’s rule.
******************
II. How the Communist Party Sabotages Traditional Culture
Everything the CCP does serves a political purpose. In order to seize,
maintain and consolidate its tyranny, the CCP needs to replace human
nature with its evil Party nature, and the Chinese traditional culture
with its Party culture of “deceit, wickedness and violence.” This
destruction and substitution includes cultural relics, historical sites
and ancient books, which are tangible, and such intangible things as
the traditional outlook on morality, life and the world. All aspects of
people’s lives are involved, including their actions, thoughts and
lifestyles. At the same time, the CCP regards insignificant and
superficial cultural manifestations as the “essence,” retaining
them, and then puts this “essence” up as a façade. The Party keeps
the semblance of tradition while replacing the real tradition with
Party culture. It then deceives the people and international society
behind a façade of “carrying on and developing” Chinese
traditional culture.
Simultaneously Extinguishing the Three Religions
Owing to the fact that the traditional culture is rooted in
Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, the CCP’s first step in destroying
traditional culture was to extinguish the manifestation of the divine
principles in the human world, eradicating the three religions
corresponding to them.
All three major religions, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism,
encountered destruction in different historical time periods. Take
Buddhism for example. It has suffered four major tribulations in
history, which are historically known as the “Three Wus and One
Zong” persecution of Buddhist devotees by four Chinese emperors.
Emperor Taiwu [28] of the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 AD) and Emperor
Wuzong [29] of the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) both tried to extinguish
Buddhism in order to have Taoism prevail. Emperor Wu [30] of the
Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581 AD) tried to extinguish Buddhism and
Taoism together, but venerated Confucianism. Emperor Shizong [31] of
the Later Zhou Dynasty (951-960 AD) tried to extinguish Buddhism merely
to use the Buddha statues to mint coins, and did not touch Taoism or
Confucianism.
The CCP is the only regime to extinguish the three religions
simultaneously.
Soon after the CCP established a government, it began to destroy
temples, burn scriptures and forced the Buddhist monks and nuns to
return to secular life. Neither was it any softer in destroying other
religious places. By the 1960s, there were hardly any religious places
left in China. The Great Cultural Revolution brought even greater
religious and cultural catastrophe in the campaign of “Casting Away
the Four Olds” [32]—i.e., old ideas, old culture, old customs and
old habits.
For example, the first Buddhist temple in China was the White Horse
Temple (Bai Ma Temple) [33] built in the early Eastern Han Dynasty
(25-220 AD) outside Luoyang city, Henan Province. It is honored as
“the Cradle of Buddhism in China” and “the Founder’s Home.”
During “Casting Away the Four Olds,” the White Horse Temple, of
course, could not escape looting.
There was a White Horse Temple production brigade near the temple.
The Party branch secretary led peasants to smash the temple in the name
of ‘revolution.’ The over 1,000-year-old clay statues of the
Eighteen Arhats built in the Liao Dynasty (916-1125 AD) were destroyed.
The Beiye scripture [34] that an eminent Indian monk brought to China
2,000 years ago was burned. A rare treasure, the Jade Horse, was
smashed to pieces. Several years later, Cambodian King in Exile Norodom
Sihanouk made a special request to pay homage to the White Horse
Temple. Zhou Enlai, the Chinese premier at the time, hurriedly ordered
the transport to Luoyang of the Beiye scripture stored in the Imperial
Palace in Beijing and the statues of the Eighteen Arhats built in the
Qing Dynasty from the Temple of Azure Clouds (Biyun Temple) located at
the Xiangshan Park [35] in suburban Beijing. With this bogus
replacement, a diplomatic difficulty was ‘solved.’ [36]
The Cultural Revolution began in May of 1966. It was in fact
“revolutionizing” Chinese culture in a destructive way. Starting in
August 1966, the raging fire of the “Casting Away the Four Olds”
burned the entire land of China. Regarded as objects of “feudalism,
capitalism, and revisionism,” the Buddhist temples, Taoist temples,
Buddha statues, historical and scenic sites, calligraphy, paintings,
and antiques became the main targets for destruction by the Red Guards.
[37] Take the Buddha statues for example. There are 1000 colored,
glazed Buddha statues in relief on the top of Longevity Hill in the
Summer Palace [38] in Beijing. After the “Casting Away the Four
Olds,” they were all damaged. None of them has a complete set of the
five sensory organs any more.
The capital of the country was like this, and so was the rest of the
country. Even the remote county seats did not escape.
There is a Tiantai Temple in Dai county in Shanxi Province. It was
built during the Taiyan time period of the Northern Wei Dynasty 1,600
years ago and had precious statues and frescos. Although it was
situated on a hillside quite a distance away from the county seat, the
people who participated in the ‘Casting Away the Four Olds’ ignored
the difficulties and made a clean sweep of the statues and frescos
there. … The Louguan Temple, [39] where Lao Zi gave his lecture and
left his famous Tao-te Ching 2,500 years ago, is situated in the
Zhouzhi County of Shaanxi Province. Centered around the platform where
Lao Zi lectured, within a radius of 10 li [40], there are over 50
historical sites, including the Temple Venerating the Sage (Zongsheng
Gong) that Emperor Tang Gaozu Li Yuan [41] built to show respect for
Lao Zi over 1,300 years ago. Now the Louguan Temple and the other
historical sites have been destroyed, and all Taoist priests have been
forced to leave. According to the Taoist canon, once one becomes a
Taoist priest, one can never shave one’s beard or have one’s hair
cut. However, now the Taoist priests are forced to have their hair cut,
take off their Taoist robes, and become members of the People’s
communes. [42] Some of them married daughters of the local peasants and
became their sons-in-law. … At the sacred Taoist places in Laoshan
Mountain in Shandong Province, the Temple of Supreme Peace, the Temple
of the Highest Clarity, the Supreme Clarity Temple, the Doumu Temple,
the Huayan Nunnery, the Ningzhen Temple, the Temple of Guan Yu, ‘the
statues of the divine, sacrificial vessels, scrolls of Buddhist sutras,
cultural relics, and temple tablets were all smashed and burned
down’. … The Temple of Literature in Jilin Province is one of the
four famous Temples of Confucius in China. During the ‘Casting Away
the Four Olds,’ it was severely damaged.” [43]
A Special Way to Destroy Religion
Lenin once said, “The easiest way to take a fortress is from
within.” As a group of children and grandchildren of
Marxism-Leninism, the CCP naturally and tacitly understands this.
In the “Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra,” [44] Buddha Shakyamuni
predicted that after his nirvana, demons would be reincarnated as
monks, nuns, and male and female lay Buddhists to subvert the Dharma.
Of course, we cannot verify what Buddha Shakyamuni was referring to
exactly. However, the CCP’s destruction of Buddhism indeed started
with forming a “united front” with some Buddhists. They even sent
some underground communist party members to infiltrate the religion
directly and subvert it from within. In a criticism meeting during the
Cultural Revolution, someone questioned Zhao Puchu, vice president of
the Chinese Buddhists Association at the time, “You are a Communist
Party member, why do you believe in Buddhism?”
Buddha Shakyamuni attained supreme and complete enlightenment through
“precept, concentration, wisdom.” So before his nirvana, he
instructed his disciples to “Uphold and observe the Precepts. Do not
let them down or violate them.” He also warned, “People who violate
the Precepts are abhorred by heaven, dragons, ghosts and the divine.
Their evil reputation spreads far and wide. … When their lives end,
they will suffer in hell for their karma, and meet their inexorable
doom. Then they will come out. They will continue to suffer by bearing
the body of hungry ghosts and animals. They will suffer in a circle
like this endlessly with no relief.” [45]
The political Buddhist monks turned deaf ears to Buddha’s warnings.
In 1952, the CCP sent representatives to attend the inaugural meeting
of the Chinese Buddhists Association. At the meeting, many Buddhists in
the association proposed to abolish the Buddhist precepts. They claimed
that these disciplines had caused the death of many young men and
women. Some people even advocated that “people should be free to
believe in any religion. There should also be freedom for the monks and
nuns to get married, to drink alcohol, and to eat meat. Nobody should
interfere with these.” At that time, Master Xuyun was at the meeting
and saw that Buddhism was facing the danger of extinction in China. He
stepped forward opposing the proposals and appealed for the
preservation of the Buddhist precepts and dress. Master Xuyun was then
slandered, and labeled as “counter-revolutionary.” He was detained
in the abbot’s room, and denied food and drink. He was not allowed
out of the room even to use the toilet. He was also ordered to hand
over his gold, silver and firearms. When Xuyun answered that he had
none, he was beaten so badly that his skull was fractured and bleeding
and his ribs broken. Xuyun was 112 years old at the time. The military
police pushed him from the bed to the ground. When they came back the
next day and found Xuyun still alive, they brutally beat him again.
The Chinese Buddhists Association founded in 1952 and the Chinese
Taoist Association founded in 1957 both clearly declared in their
founding statements that they would be “under the leadership of the
People’s government.” In reality, they would be under the
leadership of the atheistic CCP. Both associations indicated that they
would actively participate in production and construction activities,
and implement government policies. They were transformed into
completely secular organizations. Yet the Buddhists and Taoists who
were devoted and abided by the precepts were labeled as
counter-revolutionaries or members of superstitious sects and secret
societies. Under the revolutionary slogan of “purifying the Buddhists
and Taoists,” they were imprisoned, forced to “reform through
labor,” or even executed. Even religions spread from the West, such
as Christianity and Catholicism were not spared.
Based on the statistics given in the book How the Chinese Communist
Party Persecutes the Christians published in 1958, even the limited
number of documents that have been made public reveal that among the
clergymen who were charged as ‘landlord’ or ‘local bully,’ a
staggering 8,840 were killed and 39,200 were sent to labor camps. Among
the clergymen charged as ‘counter-revolutionary,’ 2,450 were
killed, and 24,800 were sent to labor camps. [46]
Religions are a way for people to remove themselves from the secular
world and cultivate themselves. They emphasize “the other shore”
(the shore of perfect enlightenment) and “heaven.” Shakyamuni used
to be an Indian prince. In order to seek mukti [47], a state in which
one can obtain peace of mind, higher wisdom, full enlightenment, and
nirvana, [48] he gave up the throne and went to a wooded mountain to
cultivate by experiencing hardships and toil. Before Jesus became
enlightened, the devil brought him to the top of a mountain, showed him
all the kingdoms of the world in all their splendor. The devil said,
“If you will bow down and worship me, I will give you all these
things.” But Jesus was not enticed. Yet the political monks and
pastors who formed united fronts with the CCP made up a series of
deceits and lies such as “human world Buddhism,” and “religion is
the truth, and so is socialism.” They claimed that “there is no
contradiction between this shore and the other shore.” They
encouraged Buddhists and Taoists to pursue happiness, glory, splendor,
wealth and rank in this life, and changed the religious doctrines and
their meaning.
Buddhism forbids killing. The CCP killed people like flies during the
“suppression of counter-revolutionaries.” [49] The political monks
thereupon cooked up the justification that “killing the
counter-revolutionaries is an even greater compassion.” During the
“War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea” (1950-1953) [50], monks
were even sent directly to the front line to kill.
Take Christianity as another example. In 1950, Wu Yaozong [51] formed a
“Three-Self” Church, which followed the principles of
self-administration, self-support and self-propagation. He claimed that
they would break away from “imperialism” and actively join the
“War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.” A good friend of his
was imprisoned for over 20 years for refusing to join the Three-Self
and suffered all kinds of torture and humiliation. When he asked Wu
Yaozong, “How do you regard the miracles Jesus performed?” Wu
answered, “I have discarded all of them.”
Not acknowledging Jesus’ miracles equates to not acknowledging
Jesus’ heaven. How can one be counted as a Christian when one does
not even recognize the heaven Jesus ascended to? However, as the
founder of the “Three-Self” Church, Wu Yaozong became a member of
the Political Consultative Conference standing committee. When he
stepped into the Great Hall of the People [52], he must have completely
forgotten Jesus’ words. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the
first and greatest commandment.” (Matthew, 22:37-38) “Render
therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and unto God the
things that are God's.” (Matthew, 22:21)
The CCP confiscated the temple property, forced monks and nuns to
study Marxism-Leninism in order to brainwash them, and even forced them
to labor. For instance, there was a ‘Buddhist workshop’ in Ningbo
city, Zhejiang Province. Over 25,000 monks and nuns were once forced to
work there. What is more absurd is that the CCP encouraged monks and
nuns to get married so as to disintegrate Buddhism. For example, just
before the March 8th Women’s Day in 1951, the Women’s Federation in
Changsha city, Hunan Province ordered all nuns in the province to
decide to get married in a few days. In addition, young and healthy
monks were forced to join the army and were sent to the battlefield to
serve as cannon fodder! [53]
Various religious groups in China have disintegrated under the CCP’s
violent suppression. The genuine elites of Buddhism and Taoism have
been suppressed. Among those remaining, many returned to secular life,
and many others were undisclosed Communist Party members who
specialized in putting on kesa robes, [54] Taoist robes or pastor’s
long gowns to distort the Buddhist Scriptures, the Taoist Canon and the
Holy Bible and to look for justification for the CCP’s movements in
these doctrines.
Destruction of Cultural Relics
The ruination of cultural relics is an important part of the CCP’s
destruction of traditional culture. In the “Casting Away of the Four
Olds,” many one-of-a-kind books, calligraphies and paintings that had
been collected by intellectuals were committed to flames or shredded
into paper pulp. Zhang Bojun [55] had a family collection of over
10,000 books. The Red Guard leaders used them to make a fire to warm
themselves. What was left was sent to paper mills and shredded into
paper pulp.
The calligraphy and painting mounting specialist, Hong Qiusheng,
was an elderly man known as the ‘miracle doctor’ for ancient
calligraphy and paintings. He has mounted countless world-class
masterpieces, such as Song Emperor Huizong’s [56] painting of
scenery, Su Dongpo’s [57] painting of bamboo, and the paintings of
Wen Zhengming [58] and Tang Bohu [59]. Over several decades, most of
the hundreds of ancient calligraphy and paintings that he had rescued
had become a first class national collection. The calligraphy and
paintings that he had spared no pains in collecting were labeled as
‘Four Olds’ and were committed to flames. Afterwards, Mr. Hong said
in tears, “Over 100 jin [60] (50 kilograms) of calligraphy and
paintings; it took such a long time to burn them!”[61]
“While worldly matters come and go,
Ancient, modern, to and fro,
Rivers and mountains are changeless in their glory
And still to be witnessed from this trail. …” [62]
If today’s Chinese people were still to remember some of their
history, they would probably feel differently when they recite this
poem by Meng Haoran. The famous mountain and river historical sites
have been ruined and have disappeared in the storm of the “Casting
Away the Four Olds.” Not only was the Orchid Pavilion, where Wang
Xizhi [63] wrote the famous “Prologue to the Collection of Poems
Composed at the Orchid Pavilion,” [64] destroyed, Wang Xizhi’s own
grave was ruined as well. Wu Cheng’en’s [65] former residence in
Jiangsu Province was demolished, Wu Jingzi’s [66] former residence in
Anhui Province was smashed, the stone tablet that had Su Dongpo’s
handwritten article The Roadside Hut of the Old Drunkard [67] was
pushed over by the “young revolutionists,” [68] and the characters
on the stone tablet were scraped off.
The essence of Chinese culture has been inherited and accumulated over
several thousand years. Once destroyed, it cannot be restored. Yet the
CCP has barbarously destroyed it in the name of “revolution”
without sorrow or shame. When we sighed over the Old Summer Palace,
which is known as the “palace of palaces,” being burned down by the
Anglo-French Allied Forces, when we sighed over the monumental work of
the Yongle Encyclopedia [69] being destroyed by invader’s flames of
war, how could we have anticipated that the destruction caused by the
CCP would be so much more widespread, long lasting and thorough than
that caused by any invaders?
Destruction of Spiritual Beliefs
In addition to destroying the physical forms of religion and culture,
the CCP has also used its utmost capacity to destroy people’s
spiritual identity formed by faith and culture.
Take the CCP’s treatment of ethnic beliefs for example. The CCP
considered the traditions of the Hui Muslim group to be one of the
“Four Olds”—old thought, culture, tradition, habit. Therefore, it
forced the Hui people to eat pork. Muslim peasants and mosques were
required to raise pigs, and each household had to furnish two pigs to
the country every year. The Red Guards even forced the second highest
Tibetan living Buddha, the Panchen Lama, to eat human excrement. They
ordered three monks from Temple of Bliss located in Harbin city,
Heilongjiang Province, which is the biggest Buddhist temple built in
modern times (1921), to hold a poster board that said, “The hell with
sutras—they are full of ***.”
In 1971, Lin Biao [70], the Vice Chairman of the CCP’s central
committee, attempted to escape China but was killed when his plane
crashed in Undurkhan, Mongolia. Later, in Lin’s Beijing residence at
Maojiawan, some Confucian quotations were found. The CCP then started a
frantic movement of “Criticizing Confucius.” A writer pen-named
Liang Xiao [71] published an article in The Red Flag , the CCP’s
banner magazine, entitled “Who is Confucius?” The article described
Confucius as a “madman who wanted to turn history backward,” and a
“deceptive and shrewd demagogue.” A series of cartoons and songs
followed, demonizing Confucius.
In this way, the dignity and sacredness of religion and culture were
annihilated.
Endless Destruction
In ancient China, the central government only extended its rule to the
county level, below which patriarchal clans maintained autonomous
control. So in Chinese history, the destruction, such as the “burning
of books and the burying of Confucian scholars” by Emperor Qin Shi
Huang [72] in the Qin Dynasty (221-207 BC) and the four campaigns to
eliminate Buddhism between the fifth and tenth century by the “Three
Wus and One Zong,” all were imposed from the top down, and could not
possibly eradicate the culture. Confucian and Buddhist classics and
ideas continued to survive in the vast spaces of society. In contrast,
the campaign of “Casting Away the Four Olds” by teenage students
incited by the CCP was a nationwide grass-roots movement with
“spontaneous enthusiasm.” The CCP’s extension to every village
through village-level Party branches controlled the society so tightly
that the CCP’s “revolutionary” movement extended without end and
affected every person on every inch of land in China.
Never in history had any emperor eradicated from people’s minds what
they considered to be the most beautiful and the most sacred, using
slanderous and insulting propaganda in addition to violence, as the CCP
has. Elimination of belief can often be more effective and long-lasting
than physical destruction alone.
Reforming Intellectuals
The Chinese characters embody the essence of 5,000 years of
civilization. Each character’s form and pronunciation, and the idioms
and literary allusions composed of combinations of the characters, all
express profound cultural meanings. The CCP has not only simplified the
Chinese characters, but also tried to replace them with Romanized
pinyin, which would remove all cultural tradition from the Chinese
characters and language. But the replacement plan has failed, thus
sparing further damage to the Chinese language. However, the Chinese
intellectuals who inherited the same traditional culture were not so
fortunate as to be spared destruction.
Prior to 1949, China had about two million intellectuals. Although some
had studied in Western countries, they still inherited some Confucian
ideas. The CCP certainly could not relax its control of them, because
as members of the traditional “scholar-aristocracy” class, their
ways of thinking played important roles in shaping the thoughts of
ordinary people.
In September 1951, the CCP initiated a large-scale “thought reform
movement” starting in Peking University among intellectuals, and
required to “organize a movement (among teachers in colleges, middle
schools and primary schools, and college students) to confess their
history faithfully and honestly,” so as to cleanse any
counter-revolutionary elements.”[73]
Mao Zedong never liked intellectuals. He said, “They [the
intellectuals] ought to be aware of the truth that actually many
so-called intellectuals are, relatively speaking, quite ignorant and
the workers and farmers sometimes know more than they do.” [74]
“Compared with the workers and peasants, the unreformed intellectuals
were not clean, and in the last analysis, the workers and peasants were
the cleanest people, even though their hands were dirty and their feet
smeared with cow-dung…” [75]
The CCP’s persecution of intellectuals started with various forms of
accusations, ranging from the 1951 criticism of Wu Xun [76] for
“running schools with begged money” to Mao Zedong’s personal
attack, in 1955, on writer Hu Feng [77] as a counter-revolutionary. In
the beginning, the intellectuals were not categorized as a reactionary
class, but by 1957, after several major religious groups had
surrendered through the “unified front” movement, the CCP could
focus its energy on the intellectuals. The “Anti-Rightist” movement
was thus launched.
In the end of February of 1957, claiming to “let a hundred flowers
bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend,” the CCP called on
intellectuals to voice their suggestions and criticisms to the Party,
promising no retaliation. Those intellectuals had been dissatisfied
with the CCP for a long time for its ruling in every field even though
it was a layman in those fields and its killing of innocent people
during the movement to “suppress counter-revolutionaries” in
1950-1953 and to “eliminate counter-revolutionaries” in 1955-1957.
They thought the CCP had finally become open-minded. So they began to
speak out their true feelings, and their criticism grew more and more
intense.
Many years later, there are still many people who believe that Mao
Zedong only started to attack the intellectuals after becoming
impatient with their overly harsh criticisms. The truth, however,
turned out to be different.
On May 15, 1957, Mao Zedong wrote an article entitled “Things Are
Beginning to Change” and circulated it among senior CCP officials.
The article said, “In recent days the Rightists…have shown
themselves to be most determined and most rabid. …The Rightists, who
are anti-Communist, are making a desperate attempt to stir up a typhoon
above force seven in China…and are so bent on destroying the
Communist Party.” [78] After that, those officials who had been
indifferent to the “let a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools
of thought contend” campaign suddenly became enthusiastic and
“earnest.” In her memoir The Past Doesn't Disappear Like Smoke ,
Zhang Bojun’s daughter recounted:
Li Weihan, Minister of the United Front Work Department, called
Zhang Bojun in person to invite him to a rectification meeting to offer
his opinion about the CCP. Zhang was arranged to sit on a front row
sofa. Not knowing this to be a trap, Zhang articulated his criticisms
of the CCP. During the whole course, “Li Weihan appeared relaxed.
Zhang probably thought Li agreed with what he said. He didn’t know Li
was pleased to see his prey falling into the trap.” After the
meeting, Zhang was classified as the number one rightist in China.
We can cite a string of dates in 1957 that marked proposals or speeches
delivered by intellectuals offering criticisms and suggestions: Zhang
Bojun’s “Political Design Institute” on May 21; Long Yun’s
“Absurd Anti-Soviet Views” on May 22; Luo Longji’s “Redressing
Committee” on May 22; Lin Xiling’s speech on “Criticizing the
CCP’s Feudalistic Socialism” at Peking University on May 30; Wu
Zuguang’s “The Party Should Stop Leading the Arts” on May 31; and
Chu Anping’s “The Party Dominates the World” on June 1. All these
proposals and speeches had been invited, and were offered after Mao
Zedong had already sharpened his butcher’s knife.
All of these intellectuals, predictably, were later labeled rightists.
There were more than 550,000 such “rightists” nationwide.
Chinese tradition has it that “scholars can be killed but cannot be
humiliated.” The CCP was capable of humiliating intellectuals by
denying their right to survive and even incriminating their families
unless they accepted humiliation. Many intellectuals did surrender.
During the course, some of them told on others to save themselves,
which broke many people’s hearts. Those who did not submit to
humiliation were killed—serving as examples to terrorize other
intellectuals.
The traditional “scholarly class,” exemplars of social morality,
was thus obliterated.
Mao Zedong said,
What can Emperor Qin Shi Huang brag about? He only killed 460
Confucian scholars, but we killed 46,000 intellectuals. In our
suppression of counter-revolutionaries, didn’t we kill some
counter-revolutionary intellectuals as well? I argued with the
pro-democratic people who accused us of acting like Emperor Qin Shi
Huang. I said they were wrong. We surpassed him by a hundred times.
[79]
Indeed, Mao did more than kill the intellectuals. More grievously, he
destroyed their minds and hearts.
Creating the Appearance of Culture by Keeping the Semblance of
Tradition but Replacing the Contents
After the CCP adopted economic reform and an open-door policy, it
renovated many churches as well as Buddhist and Taoist temples. It also
organized some temple fairs in China as well as cultural fairs
overseas. This was the last effort of the CCP to utilize and destroy
the remaining traditional culture. There were two reasons for the CCP
to do so. On the one hand, the kindness inherent in human nature, which
the CCP could not possibly eradicate, will lead to the destruction of
the “Party culture.” On the other hand, the CCP intended to use
traditional culture to apply cosmetics to their [true] face in order to
cover up their evil nature of “deceit, wickedness and violence.”
The essence of culture is its inner moral meaning, while the
superficial forms have only entertainment value. The CCP restored the
superficial elements of culture, which entertain, to cover up its
purpose of destroying morality. No matter how many art and calligraphy
exhibits the CCP has organized, how many culture festivals with dragon
and lion dances it has staged, how many food festivals it has hosted,
or how much classical architecture it has built, the Party is simply
restoring the superficial appearance, but not the essence, of the
culture. In the meantime, the CCP promoted its cultural showpieces both
inside and outside of China basically for the sole purpose of
maintaining political power.
Once again, temples are an example. Temples are meant to be places for
people to cultivate, hearing bells in the morning and drums at sunset,
worshiping Buddha under burning oil lamps. People in ordinary human
society can also confess and worship there. Cultivation requires a pure
heart that pursues nothing. Confession and worship also require a
serious and solemn environment. However, temples have been turned into
tourist resorts for the sake of economic profits. Among the people
actually visiting temples in China today, how many of them have come to
contemplate their mistakes with a sincere and respectful heart towards
Buddha right after taking a bath and changing their clothes?
Restoring the semblance but destroying the inner meaning of traditional
culture is the tactic that the CCP has taken to confuse people. Be it
Buddhism, other religions, or cultural forms derived from them, the CCP
deliberately degrades them in this way.
******************
III. The Party Culture
While the CCP was destroying the traditional semi-divine culture, it
quietly established its own “Party culture” through continuous
political movements. The Party culture has transformed the older
generation, poisoned the younger generation and also had an impact on
children. Its influence has been extremely deep and broad. Even when
many people tried to expose the evilness of the CCP, they couldn’t
help but adopt the ways of judging good and bad, the ways of analyzing,
and the vocabulary developed by the CCP, which inevitably carry the
imprint of the Party culture.
The Party culture not only inherited the essential wickedness of the
foreign-born Marxist-Leninist culture, but also skillfully combined all
the negative elements from thousands of years of Chinese culture with
the violent revolution and philosophy of struggle from the Party’s
propaganda. Those negative components include internal strife for power
inside the royal family, forming cliques to pursue selfish interests,
political trickery to make others suffer, dirty tactics and conspiracy.
During the CCP’s struggle for survival in the past decades, its
characteristic of “deceit, wickedness and violence” has been
enriched, nurtured, and carried forward.
Despotism and dictatorship are the nature of the Party culture. This
culture serves the Party in its political and class struggles. One may
understand how it forms the Party’s “humanistic” environment of
terror and despotism from four aspects.
The Aspect of Domination and Control
A. A Culture of Isolation
The culture of the communist party is an isolated monopoly with no
freedom of thought, speech, association, or belief. The mechanism of
the Party’s domination is similar to a hydraulic system, relying on
high pressure and isolation to maintain its state of control. Even one
tiny leak could cause the system to collapse. For example, the Party
refused dialogue with the students during the June 4th student movement
[80], fearing that if this leak spouted, the workers, peasants,
intellectuals and the military would also request dialogue.
Consequently, China would have eventually moved towards democracy and
the one-party dictatorship would have been challenged. Therefore, they
chose to commit murder rather than grant the students’ request. Today
the CCP employs tens of thousands of “cyber police” to monitor the
internet and directly blocks any overseas websites that the CCP does
not like.
B. A Culture of Terror
For the past 55 years, the CCP has been using terror to suppress the
minds of Chinese people. They have wielded their whips and butcher’s
knives—people never know when unforeseen disasters will befall
them—to force the people to conform. The people, living in fear,
became obedient. Advocates of democracy, independent thinkers, skeptics
within the (CCP’s) system and members of various spiritual groups
have become targets for killing as a way to warn the public. The party
wants to nip any opposition in the bud.
C. A Culture of Network Control
The CCP’s control of society is all encompassing. There are a
household registration system, a neighborhood residents’ committee
system, and various levels of party committee structure. “Party
branches are established at the level of the company.” “Each and
every single village has its own Party branch.” Party and Communist
Youth League members have regular activities. The CCP also advocated a
series of slogans accordingly. A few examples are: “Guard your own
door and watch your own people.” “Stop your people from
appealing.” “Resolutely implement the system to impose duties,
guarantee fulfillment of duties, and ascertain where the responsibility
lies. Guard and control strictly. Be serious about discipline and
regulations and guarantee 24-hour preventive and maintenance control
measures.” “The 610 Office [81] will form a surveillance committee
to inspect and monitor activities in each region and work unit at
irregular intervals.”
D. A Culture of Incrimination
The CCP completely neglected the principles of rule by law in modern
society and vigorously promoted the policy of implication. It used its
absolute power to punish relatives of those who were labeled
“landlords,” “rich,” “reactionaries,” “bad elements,”
and “rightists.” It proposed the “class origin” theory [82].
Today, the CCP will “affix the responsibility of the primary leaders
and publicly reprimand them, if they fail in their leadership roles to
take adequate measures to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from going
to Beijing to stir up trouble. For serious cases, disciplinary action
will be taken.” “If one person practices Falun Gong, every family
member will be laid off.” “If one employee practices Falun Gong,
the bonus of every one in the whole company will be detained.” The
CCP also issued discriminative policies that classified children into
“ones that can be educated and transformed” or “five black
classes" (landlords, rich farmers, reactionaries, bad elements, and
rightists). The Party promoted complying with the Party and “placing
righteousness above family loyalty.” Systems, such as the personnel
and organizational archive system and temporary relocation system, were
established to ensure implementation of its policies. People were
encouraged to accuse and expose others, and rewarded for contributions
to the Party.
Aspects of Propaganda
A. A Culture of One Voice
(During the Cultural Revolution, China was filled with slogans such as)
“Supreme instructions,” “One sentence (of Mao) carries the weight
of ten thousand sentences, each one is the truth.” All media were
roused to sing the praises and collectively speak in support of the
Party. When needed, leaders from every level of the Party, government,
military, workers, youth league and women’s organizations would be
brought out to express their support. Everyone had to go through the
ordeal.
B. A Culture to Promote Violence
Mao Zedong said, “With 800 million people, how can it work without
struggle?” In the persecution of Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin said, “No
punishment for beating Falun Gong practitioners to death.” The CCP
advocated “total war,” and “the atomic bomb is simply a paper
tiger… even if half of the population died, the remaining half would
still reconstruct our homeland from the ruins.”
C. A Culture to Incite Hatred
It becomes a fundamental national policy “not to forget the suffering
of the (poor) classes, and to firmly remember the enmity in tears and
blood.” Cruelty towards class enemies was praised as a virtue. The
CCP taught “Bite into your hatred, chew it and swallow it down. Plant
the hatred into your heart so that it sprouts.” [83]
D. A Culture of Deception and Lies
(Here are a few examples of the CCP’s lies.) “The yield per mu [84]
is over ten thousand jin ” during the Great Leap Forward (1958).
“Not a single person was killed on Tiananmen Square” during the
June 4th massacre in 1989. “We have controlled the SARS virus” in
2003. “It is currently the best time for human rights in China.”
and the “Three Represents.” [85]
E. The Culture of Brainwashing
(These are a few slogans that the CCP made up to brainwash people.)
“There would be no new China without the Communist Party.” “The
force at the core leading our cause forward is the CCP and the
theoretical basis guiding our thinking is Marxism-Leninism.” [86]
“Maintain maximum alignment with the Party’s Central Committee.”
“Carry out the party’s command if you understand it. Even if you do
not understand, carry it out anyway and your understanding should
deepen while carrying out the orders.”
F. A Culture of Adulation
“Heaven and the earth are great but greater still is the kindness of
the Party;” “We owe all our achievements to the Party;” “I take
the Party as my mother;” “I use my own life to safeguard the
Central Committee of the Party.” “A great, glorious and correct
party.” “An undefeatable party,” and so on.
G. The Culture of Pretentiousness
The Party established models and set up examples one after another, and
launched the “socialist ideological and ethical progress” and
“ideological education” campaigns. In the end, people continued to
do whatever they did before each campaign. All of the public lectures,
study sessions, and experience sharing have become an “earnest
showcase,” and society’s moral standard has continued to take great
leaps backward.
The Aspect of Interpersonal Relations
A. A Culture of Jealousy
The party promoted “absolute equalitarianism” so that “anyone who
stands out will be the target of attack.” People are jealous of those
who have greater ability and those who are wealthier—the so-called
“red-eye syndrome.” [87]
B. A Culture of People Stepping Over Each Other
The CCP promoted “struggle face-to-face and report back-to-back.”
Squealing on one’s associates, creating written materials to frame
them, fabricating facts and exaggerating their mistakes—these devious
behaviors have been used to measure closeness to the party and the
desire to advance. .
Subtle Influences on People’s Internal Psyche and External Behavior
A. A Culture That Transforms Human Beings into Machines
The Party wants the people to be the “never rusting bolts in the
revolution machine,” to be the “tamed tool for the Party,” or to
“Attack in whatever directions the Party directs us.” “Chairman
Mao’s soldiers listen to the Party the most; they go wherever they
are needed and settle down wherever there are hardships.”
B. A Culture That Confounds Right and Wrong
During the Cultural Revolution, the CCP would “rather have the
socialist weeds than the capitalist crops.” The army was ordered to
shoot and kill in the June 4th massacre “in exchange for 20 years of
stability.” The CCP also “Does unto others what one does not want
to be done unto oneself.”
C. A Culture of Self-Imposed Brainwashing and Unconditional Obedience
“Lower ranks obey the orders of the higher ranks and the whole Party
obeys the Party’s Central Committee.” “Fight ruthlessly to
eradicate any selfish thoughts that flash through your mind.”
“Erupt a revolution in the depths of your soul.” “Maintain
maximum alignment with the Party’s Central Committee.” “Unify the
minds, unify the footsteps, unify the orders, and unify the
commands.”
D. A Culture of Securing a Flunkey Position
“China would be in chaos without the Communist Party;” “China is
so vast. Who else can lead it but the CCP?” “If China collapses, it
will be a worldwide disaster, so we should help the CCP sustain its
leadership.” Out of fear and self-protection, the groups constantly
suppressed by the CCP oftentimes appear even more lefty than the CCP.
There are many more examples like these. Every reader could probably
find various sorts of elements of the Party culture from his personal
experiences.
People who experienced the Cultural Revolution might still remember
vividly the “Model Play” of modern operas, the Songs with Mao’s
words as lyrics, and the Loyalty Dance. Many still recall the words
from the dialogues in “The White-Haired Girl,” [88] “Tunnel
Warfare” [89], and “War of Mines” [90]. Through these literary
works, the CCP has brainwashed people, forcibly filling their minds
with messages such as “how brilliant and great” the Party is; how
“arduously and valiantly” the party has struggled against the
enemy; how “utterly devoted to the Party” the Party’s soldiers
are; how willing they are to sacrifice themselves for the Party; and
how stupid and vicious the enemies are. Day after day, the CCP’s
propaganda machine forcibly injects into every individual the beliefs
needed by the Communist Party. Today, if one went back to watch the
“Epic Poem” of musical dance– “The East is Red,” one would
realize that the entire theme and style of the show is about
“killing, killing, and more killing.”
At the same time, the CCP has created its own system of speech and
discourse, such as the abusive language in mass criticism, the
flattering words to sing the praises of the Party, and the banal
official formalities similar to the “eight-part essay.” [91] People
are made to speak unconsciously with the thinking patterns that promote
the concept of “class struggle” and to “extol the Party,” and
use domineering language instead of calm and rational reasoning. The
CCP also abuses the religious vocabulary and distorts the content of
those terms.
One step beyond the truth is fallacy. The CCP party culture also abuses
traditional morality to a certain extent. For instance, traditional
culture values “faith,” so does the Communist Party. However what
it promotes is “faithfulness and honesty to the Party.” The
traditional culture emphasizes “filial piety.” The CCP may put
people in jail if they do not provide for their parents, but the real
reason is that these parents would otherwise become a “burden” to
the government. When it fits the Party’s needs, the children are
required to draw clear boundaries separating them from their parents.
The traditional culture stresses “loyalty.” Nevertheless, “the
people are of supreme importance; the nation comes next; last comes the
ruler.” The “loyalty” preferred by the CCP is “blind
devotion”—so completely blind that people are required to believe
in the CCP unconditionally and obey it unquestioningly.
The words commonly used by the CCP are very misleading. For example, it
called the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communists the
“Liberation War,” as if the people were being “liberated” from
oppression. The CCP called the post-1949 period “after the founding
of the nation,” when, in reality, China existed long before that. The
CCP simply established a new political regime. The three-year Great
Famine [92] was called “three years of natural disaster,” when, in
fact, it was not at all a natural disaster but, rather, a complete
man-made calamity. However, upon hearing these words used in everyday
life and being imperceptibly influenced by them, people unconsciously
accept the ideologies that the CCP intended to instill to them.
In traditional culture, music is taken as a way to constrain human
desires. In the Book of Song (Yue Shu), Volume 24 of the Records of the
Historian (Shi Ji) , Sima Qian (145-85 BC) [93] said the nature of man
is peaceful; sensation of external matters affects one’s emotions and
stir up the sentiment of love or hate based upon one’s character and
wisdom. If these sentiments are not constrained, one will be seduced by
endless external temptations and assimilated by one’s internal
sentiments to commit many bad deeds. Thus, said Sima Qian, the emperors
of the past used rituals and music to constrain people. The songs
should be “cheerful but not obscene, sad but not overly
distressing.” They should express feelings and desires, yet have
control over these sentiments. Confucius said in the Analects, “The
three hundred verses of The Odes (one of the six classics compiled and
edited by Confucius) may be summed up in a single sentence, ‘Think no
evil.’”
Such a beautiful thing as music, however, was used by the CCP as a
method to brainwash the people. Songs like “Socialism Is Good,”
“There would be no new China without the Communist Party,” and many
others, have been sung from kindergarten to the university. In singing
these songs, people have unconsciously accepted the meanings of the
lyrics. Further, the CCP stole the tunes of the most melodious folk
songs and replaced them with lyrics that praise the Party. This has
served both to destroy the traditional culture and to promote the
Party.
As one of the CCP’s classic documents, Mao’s “Speech at the
Yan'an Forum on Literature and Arts” [94] placed cultural endeavors
and the military as “the two battle fronts.” It stated that it was
not enough to have just the armed military; an “army of literary
arts” was also needed. It stipulated that “the literary arts should
serve politics” and “the literary arts of the proletariat class…
are the ‘gears and screws’ of the revolution machine.” A complete
system of “Party culture” was developed out of this, with
“atheism” and “class struggle” being its core. This system goes
completely against traditional culture.
The “Party culture” has indeed rendered distinguished service in
helping the CCP to win power and control over society. Like its army,
prisons, and police force, the Party culture is also a violence
machine, which provides a different kind of brutality—“cultural
brutality.” This cultural brutality, by destroying 5000 years of
traditional culture, has diminished the will of the people, and
undermined the cohesiveness of the Chinese nationality.
Today, many Chinese are absolutely ignorant of the essence of
traditional culture. Some even equate the 50 years of “Party
culture” to the 5000 years of Chinese traditional culture. This is a
sorrowful thing for the Chinese people. Many do not realize that in
opposing the so-called traditional culture they are in fact against the
“Party culture” of the CCP, not the real traditional culture of
China.
Many people hope to replace the current Chinese system with the Western
democratic system. In reality, Western democracy has also been
established on a cultural basis, notably that of Christianity, which,
holding that “everyone is equal in the eyes of God,” thus respects
human nature and human choices. How could the despotic, inhuman
“Party culture” of the CCP be used as the foundation for a
Western-style democratic system?
******************
Conclusion
China started to deviate from its traditional culture in the Song
Dynasty (960-1279 AD), and that culture has experienced constant
depredation ever since. After the May Fourth Movement of 1919, [95]
some intellectuals who were eager for quick success and instant benefit
attempted to find a path for China by turning away from the traditional
culture toward Western civilization. Still, conflicts and changes in
the cultural domain remained a focus of academic contention without the
involvement of state forces. When the CCP came into existence, however,
it elevated cultural conflicts to a matter of life-and-death struggle
for the Party. So the CCP began to exercise a direct assault on
traditional culture, using destructive means as well as indirect abuse
in the form of “adopting the dross and rejecting the essence.”
The destruction of the national culture was also the process of
establishing “the Party culture.” The CCP subverted human
conscience and moral judgment, thus driving people to turn their backs
on traditional culture. If the national culture is completely
destroyed, the essence of the nation will disappear with it, leaving
only an empty name for the nation. This is not an exaggerated warning.
At the same time, the destruction of the traditional culture has
brought us unexpected physical damage.
Traditional culture values the unity of heaven and humans and
harmonious co-existence between humans and nature. The CCP has declared
endless joy from “fighting with heaven and earth.” This culture of
the CCP has led directly to the serious degradation of the natural
environment that plagues China today. Take water resources for example.
The Chinese people, having abandoned the traditional value that “a
nobleman treasures wealth, but he makes fortune in a decent way,”
have wantonly ravaged and polluted the natural environment. Currently,
more than 75 percent of the 50,000 kilometers (or 30,000 miles) of
China’s rivers are unsuitable for fish habitat. Over one third of the
groundwater had been polluted even a decade ago, and now the situation
continues to worsen. A “spectacle” of a strange kind occurred at
the Huaihe River: A little child playing in the oil-filled river
created a spark that, upon striking the surface of the river, lit a
flame five meters (16 feet) high. As the fire surged into the air, more
than ten willow trees in the vicinity were burnt to a crisp. [96] One
can easily see that it is impossible for those who drink such water not
to develop cancer or other strange diseases. Other environmental
problems, such as desertification and salinization in Northwest China
and industrial pollution in developed regions, all are related to the
society’s loss of respect for nature.
Traditional culture respects life. The CCP urges that “revolt is
justifiable,” and “struggling against human beings is full of
joy.” In the name of revolution, the Party could murder and starve to
death tens of millions of people. This has led people to devalue life,
which then encourages the proliferation of fake and poisonous products
in the market. In Fuyang City of Anhui Province, for example, many
healthy babies developed short limbs, thin and weak bodies, and
enlarged heads during their lactation period. Eight babies died because
of this strange disease. After investigation, it was discovered that
the disease was caused by poisonous milk powder made by a black-hearted
and greedy manufacturer. Some people feed crabs, snakes and turtles
with hormones and antibiotics, mix industrial alcohol with drinking
wine, polish rice using industrial shortenings, and whiten bread flour
with industrial brightening agents. For eight years, a manufacturer in
Henan Province produced thousands of tons of cooking oil every month
using materials containing carcinogens such as waste oil, oil extracted
from left-over meals, or discarded argil that contained residual oils
after its use. Producing poisonous foods is not a local or limited
phenomenon, but is common all over China. This has everything to do
with the single-minded pursuit of material gain that comes in the wake
of the destruction of the culture and consequent degeneration of human
morality.
Unlike the absolute monopoly and exclusiveness of the Party culture,
the traditional culture has a tremendous integrative capacity. During
the prosperous Tang Dynasty, Buddhist teachings, Christianity, and
other Western religions co-existed harmoniously with Taoist and
Confucian thought. Authentic Chinese traditional culture would have
kept an open and tolerant attitude toward modern Western civilization.
The four "tigers" of Asia (Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Hong
Kong) have created a “New Confucian” cultural identity. Their
soaring economies have proven that traditional culture is not a
hindrance to social development.
At the same time, authentic traditional culture measures the quality of
human life on the basis of happiness from within rather than material
comfort from without. “I would rather have no one blame me behind my
back, than have someone praise me to my face; I would rather have peace
in mind, than have comfort in body.” [97] Tao Yuanming (365-427 AD)
[98] lived in poverty, but he kept a joyful spirit and enjoyed as a
pastime, “picking asters beneath the eastern fence, gazing upon the
Southern Mountain in the distance.”
Culture offers no answers for questions such as how to expand
industrial production or what social systems to adopt. Rather, it plays
an important role in providing moral guidance and restraint. The true
restoration of traditional culture shall be the recovery of humility
toward heaven, the earth and nature, respect for life, and awe before
God. It will allow humanity to live harmoniously with heaven and earth
and to enjoy a heaven-given old age.
******************
Notes:
[1] Pangu was the first living being and the creator of all in Chinese
mythology.
[2] Nüwa was the mother goddess who created humankind in Chinese
mythology.
[3] Shennong (literally, “The Heavenly Farmer”) is a legendary
figure in Chinese mythology who lived some 5,000 years ago. He taught
the ancient people the practices of agriculture. He is also credited
with risking his life to identify hundreds of medicinal (and poisonous)
herbs and various plants of that nature, which were crucial to the
development of traditional Chinese medicine.
[4] Cangjie or Cang Jie is a fabled and legendary figure from ancient
China, is said to have been the Yellow Emperor's official historian,
and the inventor of the Chinese characters. The Cangjie method of
Chinese character computer input is named after him.
[5] From Tao-te Ching or Dao De Jing , one of the most important Taoist
texts, written by Lao Zi or Lao Tze.
[6] Opening remarks from The Great Learning by Confucius.
[7] From Records of the Historian ( Shi Ji , also translated as The
Grand Scribe’s Record ) by Sima Qian (145-85 BC), who was the first
major Chinese historian. It documents the history of China and its
neighboring countries from the ancient past to his own time. The
pattern of Sima Qian’s historiographic work was unique and served as
model for the official standard histories of the imperial dynasties for
the next 2000 years.
[8] From Confucius’ Analects .
[9] ibid.
[10] ibid.
[11] Confucius said in The Greating Learning he wrote, “Their persons
being cultivated, their families were regulated. Their families being
regulated, their states were rightly governed. Their states being
rightly governed, the whole kingdom was made tranquil and happy.”
[12] Dong Zhongshu (ca. 179-104 B.C.), a Confucian thinker during the
Han Dynasty, said in a treatise Three Ways to Harmonize Humans with
Heaven (Tian Ren San Ce) , “if heaven remains, the Tao does not
change.”
[13] The Journey to the West , known to westerners as Monkey King ,
written by Wu Cheng’en (1506?-1582?), is one of the renowned
classical Chinese novels. It was based on a true story of a famous
Chinese monk in the Tang Dynasty, Xuan Zang (602-664), who traveled on
foot to what is today India, the birthplace of Buddhism, to seek for
the sutras. In the novel, the Monkey King, Pigsy and Sandy were
arranged by the Buddha to become disciples of Xuan Zang and escorted
him to the West to get the sutras. They went through 81 dangers and
calamities before they finally arrived at the West and achieved True
Fruition.
[14] A Dream of Red Mansions , ( Hung Lou Meng , also translated as The
Dream of the Red Chamber ), was written by Cao Xueqin (or Tsao
Hsueh-Chin) (1715?-1763) in Qing (Ching) Dynasty. It is a tragic love
story set against the background of the decline of an aristocratic
family. With this as its central theme, the novel unfolds a vast and
moving panorama of social history. It also parades a memorable and
dazzling cast of characters, with the central ones being Jia Baoyu and
Lin Daiyu. Its wide-ranging and meticulous structure together with its
literary merit in the form of exquisite language make it universally
recognized as the epitome of the art of the classical novel in China.
[15] Outlaws of the Marsh (also translated as Heroes of Water Margins
), one of China’s great classic novels, written in the 14th century
by Shi Nai’an. A hundred and eight men and women band together to be
outlaws of the marsh. Intrigue, adventure, murder, war, and romantic
stories are told in the suspenseful manner of the traditional
storyteller.
[16] Three Kingdoms , one of the most famous Chinese classic novels
written by Luo Guanzhong (1330?-1400?) based on the history of the
Three Kingdoms period (220AD-280AD). It describes the intricate and
tense struggles for the throne among three powerful political forces:
Liu Bei, Cao Cao and Sun Quan, and focuses on various great talents and
bold strategies during that period.
[17] The Romance of the Eastern Zhou , a novel originally written by Yu
Shaoyu in the Ming Dynasty, revised and rewritten by Feng Menglong at
end of the Ming Dynasty, and was further revised by Cai Yuanfang in the
Qing Dynasty. It covers a history of more than 500-years during the
Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States period
(475-221 BC).
[18] The Complete Story of Yue Fei , was written by Qian Cai in the
Qing Dynasty. It described the life of Yue Fei (1103-1142) from the
Southern Song Dynasty, one of the most famous Generals and patriotic
heroes in Chinese history. General Yue Fei distinguished himself in
battles against northern invaders from the Jin nation. He was framed
for crimes that he did not commit, sent to prison and executed, as
Prime Minister Qin Hui attempted to eliminate the war party. Yue Fei
was later cleared of the groundless charges and a temple was built in
his memory. Four cast-iron figures were made for his tomb. With chests
bare and hands bound behind their backs and kneeling before it, they
represent those people who are responsible for Yue Fei’s murder. Yue
Fei has become a model in Chinese culture of loyalty to the country.
[19] This quote comes from Abstract of Collected Taoist Scriptures (Dao
Cang Ji Yao) compiled in the Qing Dynasty.
[20] See [8].
[21] From Mao’s speech at the Eighth Session of the Tenth CCP Plenary
Meeting.
[22] Mao's original words in Chinese used a pun: I am like a monk
holding an umbrella—no Tao (or Fa, pun for "hair") nor heaven (pun
for "sky").
[23] Jie is the name of the last ruler of the Xia Dynasty (c. 21-16
B.C.), and Zhou is the name of the last ruler of the Shang Dynasty (c.
16 -11 B.C.). Both are known as tyrants.
[24] Wen Tianxiang (1236-1283 AD), a military commander who fought
against the Mongolian troops to protect the integrity of the Southern
Song Dynasty. He was killed on January 9th, 1283 for refusing to
surrender to the Mongolians after being taken prisoner.
[25] From Mencius .
[26] From a very famous saying by Mencius, "Life, my desire; justice,
my desire too. When I cannot have both of them at the same time, I will
maintain justice at the expense of my life."
[27] From the Communist Internationale anthem. The Chinese translation
literally means: “There has never been a savior, and we do not rely
on God either; to create human happiness, we rely entirely on
ourselves.”
[28] Emperor Taiwu of the Northern Wei, alias Tuo Tao (r. 424-452 AD)
[29] Emperor Wuzong of the Tang Dynasty, alias Li Yan, (r. 840-846 AD)
[30] Emperor Wu of the Northern Zhou Dynasty, alias Yu Yong, (r.
561-579 AD)
[31] Emperor Shizong of the Later Zhou Dynasty, alias Chairong, (r.
954-959 AD)
[32] A slogan used in the mid 1960s during the Cultural Revolution in
China.
[33] The White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist monastery in China, was
built in A.D. 68, the eleventh year of Yong Ping in the Eastern Han
Dynasty (25-220 AD).
[34] In the Dai language, the Beiye Scripture is pronounced Tanlan.
Beiye is a subtropical plant belonging to the palm family. It is a tall
kind of tree with thick leaves, which are mothproof and very slow to
dry out. In ancient times when paper was not yet invented, the Dai’s
ancestors imprinted letters or articles on the leaf. The letters carved
on the leaf are called the Beiye correspondence, and the scripture on
it, Tanlan (Beiye scripture).
[35] Xiangshan Park, also called Fragrant Hills Park, is located 28
kilometers (17 miles) northwest of downtown Beijing. Initially built in
1186 in the Jin Dynasty, it became a summer resort for imperial
families during the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.
[36] From How Many Cultural Relics Were Committed To Flames by Ding
Shu.
[37] Red Guards refers to civilians who were the frontline implementers
of the Great Cultural Revolution. Most were youngsters in their
mid-teens.
[38] The Summer Palace, located 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Beijing,
is the largest and best-preserved royal garden in China, with a history
of over 800 years.
[39] Louguan Temple is a famous Taoist shrine in China. It is revered
as “the first land of the blessed under heaven.” The temple is
situated on the hillside north of the Zhongnan Mountains, 15 kilometers
(9 miles) southeast of Zhouzhi County and 70 kilometers (42 miles) from
Xi’an City.
[40] li is a Chinese unit of length (1 li is 0.5 kilometer or 0.3
miles).
[41] Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, alias Li Yuan, (r. 618-626 AD),
the first emperor of Tang Dynasty.
[42] People's communes (Renmin Gongshe), were formerly the highest of
three administrative levels in rural areas in the period from 1958 to
around 1982 in the People's Republic of China. The communes had
governmental, political, and economic functions. They were the largest
collective units and were further divided into production brigades and
production teams. After 1982, they were replaced by townships.
[43] See [36].
[44] The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra purports to be the Buddha's
final Mahayana sutra, delivered on the last day of his earthly life. It
claims to constitute the quintessence of all Mahayana sutras.
[45] From Taisho Tripitaka Vol. T01, No. 7, Mahayana Mahaparinirvana
Sutra . Provisional translation subject to improvement.
[46] From The Theory and Practice of the Chinese Communist Party’s
Suppression of Religions by Bai Zhi. Website:
http://www.dajiyuan.com/gb/3/4/15/n300731.htm (in Chinese).
[47] Mukti means Fist Dharma or Law teaching or transmission. Mukti can
also be translated as “loosing, release, deliverance, liberation,
setting free, emancipation; escape from bonds and the obtaining of
freedom, freedom from transmigration, from karma, from illusion, from
suffering”; it denotes Nirvāna and also the freedom obtained in
Dhyāna (meditation). It is to escape from Samsara (reincarnation).
[48] Nirvana, in Buddhism or Hinduism, is a state of blissful peace and
harmony beyond the sufferings and passions of individual existence; a
state of oneness with the eternal spirit.
[49] A Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries campaign dealt violently
with former members of secret societies, religious associations, and
the Kuomintang (KMT) in early 1951.
[50] The “War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea”, as the CCP
called it, broke out in 1950. It is commonly known in the western world
as the “Korean War.”
[51] Wu Yaozong (1893-1975 AD) and others published the so-called
“Means for Chinese Christianity to Exert Efforts in the Construction
of the New China,” also called the “Innovation Manifesto of Three
Self” in 1950 and formed the “Three-Self” church thereafter.
[52] The Great Hall of the People, built in 1959, is located at the
west side of Tiananmen Square. It is a meeting place for the National
People's Congress of China.
[53] See [46].
[54] Kesa robe, the monk's robe, or cassock.
[55] Zhang Bojun (1895-1969 AD) was one of the founders of the “China
Democratic League,” a democratic party in China. He was classified as
the “number one rightist” in 1957 by Mao Zedong, and was one of the
few “rightists” who were not redressed after the Cultural
Revolution.
[56] Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty, alias Zhao Ji (r. 1100-1126
AD).
[57] Su Dongpo, (1036-1101 AD), a famous Chinese poet and writer of the
Song Dynasty. One of the “Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and
Song Dynasties.”
[58] Wen Zhengming, (1470-1559 AD) Chinese painter of the Ming Dynasty.
[59] Tang Bohu, (1470-1523) renowned Chinese scholar, painter, and poet
of the Ming Dynasty.
[60] Jin is a unit of weight used in China. One jin is 0.5 kg, or about
1.1 lb.
[61] See [36].
[62] From a poem by Meng Haoran (689 – 740 AD) who was a well-known
poet of the Tang Dynasty.
[63] Wang Xi Zhi (321-379 AD), the most famous calligrapher in history,
from the Tang Dynasty.
[64] The original Lan Ting Prologue, allegedly written by Wang Xi Zhi
at the prime of his calligraphy career (51 years old, 353 AD), is
universally recognized as the most important piece in the history of
Chinese calligraphy.
[65] Wu Cheng’en (1506?-1582? AD), Chinese novelist and poet of the
Ming Dynasty, author of The Journey to the West , one of the four
best-known Chinese novels.
[66] Wu Jingzi (1701-1754 AD), an elegant writer of the Qing Dynasty,
author of The Scholars ( Rulin Waishi , also known as Unofficial
History of the Scholars ).
[67] Prose wrote by Ouyang Xiu (1007－1072 AD), one of the “Eight
Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song Dynasties.” Ouyang Xiu
called himself an “old drunkard”.
[68] Alternative name for the Red Guards.
[69] The Yongle Encyclopedia or Yongle Dadian was commissioned by the
Chinese Ming Dynasty Emperor Yongle in 1403. It is considered the
world’s earliest and greatest encyclopedia. Two thousand scholars
worked on the project, incorporating 8000 texts from ancient times up
to the early Ming Dynasty. The Encyclopedia, completed in 1408,
comprised over 22,000 manuscript volumes occupying 40 cubic metres
(1400 cubic feet).
[70] Lin Biao (1907-1971), one of the senior CCP leaders, served under
Mao Zedong as a member of China's Politburo, as Vice-Chairman (1958)
and Defense Minister (1959). Lin was designated as Mao's successor in
1966 but fell out of favor in 1970. He was said to attempt to flee out
of China. His plane crashed in Mongolia, resulting in his death.
[71] “Liang Xiao” represents a group of assigned writers, among
whom Zhou Yiliang, whose involvement in the writing group earned him an
anonymous letter from an old friend that referred to “the extreme of
shamelessness.”
[72] Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BC), alias Ying Zheng, was the
first emperor in the history of the unified China. He standardized
legal codes, written language, currencies, weights and measures, and
ordered the Great Wall be built. All these measures had a great and
deep influence upon Chinese history and culture. He ordered the books
of various schools burned including those of Confucianism and Daoism,
and once ordered 460 Confucian scholars be buried alive. These events
were later called in history “the burning of books and the burying of
Confucian scholars.” He built a huge mausoleum for himself and the
Terra-cotta Army of the Tomb of Emperor Qin became known as the Eighth
Wonder of the World.
[73] From The Writings of Mao Zedong 1949-1976 (Vol. 2)
[74] From Mao’s “Rectify the Party’s Style of Work” (1942).
[75] From Mao’s “Talks at the Yan’an Forum on Literature and
Art” (1942).
[76] Wu Xun (1838-1896 AD), originally Wu Qi, was born in Shandong’s
Tangyi. Having lost his father at an early age, his family was
impoverished. He had to beg for food to feed his mother and became
known as the filial piety beggar. After his mother passed away, begging
became his only means of making a living. He ran free schools with the
money he had accrued from begging.
[77] Hu Feng (1902-1985), scholar and literary critic, opposed the
doctrinaire literature policy of the CCP. He was expelled from the
Party in 1955 and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
[78] From Selected Works of Mao Zedong (Vol. 5), “Things Are
Beginning to Change” (1957)
[79] Qian Bocheng, Oriental Culture , fourth edition (2000).
[80] The June 4th student movement was initiated by college students
advocating democratic reforms in China between April 15 and June 4,
1989. It was later suppressed by the People's Liberation Army, and is
called by international society the June 4th massacre.
[81] An agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with
absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all
other political and judiciary systems.
[82] “Class origin” (or bloodline or pedigree) theory claims that
one’s nature is determined by the class of the family in which one is
born.
[83] From the song of the modern opera "Legend of the Red Lantern," a
popular official “Model Play” developed during the "Great Cultural
Revolution" (1966-76).
[84] Mu is a unit of area used in China. One mu is 0.165 acres.
[85] The “Three Represents” claims that, the Party must always
represent the development trend of China's advanced productive forces,
the orientation of China's advanced culture and the fundamental
interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people.
[86] Opening address at the First Session of the First National
People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China (September 15,
1954).
[87] “Red-eye syndrome,” equivalent to "green-eyed" in the Western
expression, is used here to describe a person, who, when seeing other
people doing better than he is, feels unequal and uncomfortable, and
thinks that he should be the one who is doing better.
[88] A popular official “Model Play” developed during the "Great
Cultural Revolution" (1966-76). In folk legend, the White-Haired Girl
is a female immortal living in a cave who had supernatural abilities to
reward virtue and punish vice, support the righteous and restrain the
evil. However, in this Chinese “modern” opera, she was described as
a girl who was forced to flee to a cave after her father was beaten to
death for refusing to marry her to an old landlord. She became
white-haired for lack of nutrition. This became one of the most
well-known “modern” dramas in China and incited class hatred of
landlords.
[89] Tunnel Warfare (Didao Zhan), a 1965 black and white film in which
the CCP claimed that its guerrillas in Central China fought Japanese
invaders through various underground tunnels in the 1940s.
[90] War of Mines (Dilei Zhan), a 1962 black and white film in which
the CCP claimed that its guerrillas in Hebei Province fought Japanese
invaders with homemade mines in the 1940s.
[91] A literary composition prescribed for the imperial civil service
examinations, known for its rigidity of form and poverty of ideas.
[92] The Great Famine of 1959-1961 in China is the largest famine in
human history. Estimated numbers of “abnormal deaths” in the famine
range from 18 to 43 million.
[93] See [7].
[94] By Mao Zedong (1942).
[95] The May Fourth Movement was the first mass movement in modern
Chinese history, beginning on May 4, 1919.
[96] Chen Guili, Warning of Huaihe River (1995).
[97] From Prologue to See Li Yuan to Return to Pangu by Han Yu (768-824
AD), one of the “Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song
Dynasties.”
[98] Tao Yuanming (365-427 AD), also known as Tao Qian, a great poet in
Chinese literature.
(Updated on January 12, 2005)
Click here to read the original article in Chinese
Copyright 2000 - 2005 Epoch Times International
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